From our other sites
The story
Entrepreneur Takafumi Horie shared on X that he’d stayed at a “high-end sushi restaurant you can stay overnight at” in Imizu City, Toyama Prefecture. In response, a regular user wrote, “I hate Horiemon, but just for spotlighting Toyama, I might end up liking him.” Horie shot back with a question: “Why bother saying you hate me at all?” — and the exchange blew up on 5ch. In the thread, opinions split: some found it surprising that Horie, who’s supposed to have thick skin against criticism, bothered to respond at all; others coldly noted that given his usual behavior, being disliked is only natural; and still others took issue with the very habit of prefacing a compliment with “I hate you.”
Entrepreneur Takafumi Horie posted on X (formerly Twitter) on the 24th, raising a question about a comment directed at him.
It started when Horie shared on X that he’d stayed at a “high-end sushi restaurant you can stay overnight at” in Shinminato, Imizu City, Toyama Prefecture.
In response to the post, a regular X user commented, “I hate Horiemon, but just for spotlighting Toyama, I might end up liking him.”
Source: ggtnews.net / Original article here
What people said
So it's only a little bit of hate, huh
Does this guy not own a mirror?
means they don't like him yet
So it's either ‘I hate him’ or ‘neither like nor hate’
Going from hate to like
and going from neutral to like
those are probably very different journeys
• Cried 4 times watching Poupelle (his animated film)
• Jungle-ia Okinawa is fun (his theme park)
• This token is amazing
so why's this guy so bothered by it lol
though that one's not exactly a lucky charm lol
Honestly, that's kind of what set things off, right
Unless you're using it to mean ‘dozaemon’ (slang for a drowned corpse), in which case, fine
Does he not realize he's the one who always says stuff he doesn't need to say?
Background and Key Points of This Story
Beyond his work as an entrepreneur and media personality, Horie has a criminal conviction for violating the Securities and Exchange Law (the Livedoor scandal), and he’s frequently in the news for his blunt remarks on TV and social media. The nickname “Zenka-mon” used in the thread (a pun combining “Horiemon” with 前科, meaning “prior conviction”) isn’t mere slander — it’s a jab rooted in this well-known fact about his past, something readers unfamiliar with the reference might misread as a baseless insult. What sparked this particular discussion was the divide in how people read a common online phrasing pattern: prefacing a compliment with “I hate you.” In the thread, some saw it as petty that Horie, who’s supposedly used to criticism, bothered to respond at all; others said the split reaction is only natural given his usual conduct; and still others pointed out that “I might end up liking him” itself signals a subtle distance — he’s still not liked yet. The responses ranged well beyond a simple nitpick over wording.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geinou/Sports News+) thread “Takafumi Horie questions comment ‘I hate Horiemon but I might end up liking him,’ asking ‘Why bother saying you hate me at all?’.”
Leave a Reply